Chapter 241: Evil Seed
"Are they helping hold Princess Alicia captive?"
"Please, Leo, keep your voice down," Equidna urged nervously. "Only a few people know that the princess has been kidnapped."
I took a breath, trying to keep it steady, which was difficult after what I had just heard.
Equidna and I were alone in my room. It was small, but since I didn’t share it with anyone, we had some privacy. At first, I had been a little nervous about having her there with me, but all my nervousness around the opposite sex had faded away.
"That can’t be true! There must be an explanation!" I said, still in disbelief. "Rick and Sarah are good people. They would never kidnap anyone, much less a member of the royal family!"
Equidna shrank back at my furious words, as if she were afraid I might do something to her.
I instantly felt terrible. I hadn’t meant to frighten her, but I couldn’t help getting worked up after hearing such news.
Regardless, the woman standing in front of me had nothing to do with it. She was only the messenger.
"I’m sorry. It’s not your fault. It’s just difficult for me to believe that the two of them would do something like this."
She straightened up, less frightened now, but her tone was dejected as she continued explaining.
"Unfortunately, it’s true. They are traveling with Diane Stollen, who until recently was the princess’s bodyguard, as well as the princess herself."
"Still, this is very difficult for me to believe." I turned and stared out my bedroom window. The view was more comforting than looking at Equidna.
"I’m sorry, Leo. The Silver Fang is already investigating them. Two officers who were sent to search for Diane disappeared, only to later be found with the group. I believe they deserted and joined them."
"This doesn’t make any sense." I tried to contain myself, but the story only grew stranger and stranger. "First a group of adventurers, and now members of the Silver Fang. This is very strange."
I stared at Equidna again. Perhaps she didn’t have a good explanation, but who else could I turn to but her?
"Leo, I believe I have an explanation for this, but you won’t like it," she said in a subdued voice.
I took a deep breath, calming the anxiety in my chest, and looked her in the eyes before speaking in a calmer voice.
"Please, tell me what you have in mind."
"You told me that you found a Lost Temple, didn’t you?"
"That’s right."
"And your friend Rick received a blessing from a goddess, correct?"
I nodded.
"Do you know which goddess the statue depicted?"
"I have no idea," I said, searching my memory. "If I’m not mistaken, the statue was carved with a veil covering her face. I was also too far away, so there was no way for me to tell."
"Where are you going with this, Equidna? Please, get straight to the point."
She was probably trying to be considerate of my feelings, but that wasn’t what I needed at the moment. I needed to understand the situation. Feeling sorry for me wouldn’t get us anywhere, no matter how much I appreciated the gesture.
"He may have found a Lost Temple dedicated to an evil goddess."
"What?"
Equidna hung her head, unable to look me in the eyes as she spoke. But even with that sorrowful expression, she continued explaining her theory.
"There are evil gods as well—gods with sinister goals who also grant powers to humans. If that’s what happened, it’s possible that the new power granted to Rick changed him."
"Wait a moment, but that’s only a theory..." I stopped. I had been about to defend my friend, who was being accused of a serious crime, but then I remembered something.
At the time, he had seemed to be acting differently, as though someone else were speaking through him. Rick was the kind of guy who avoided conflict, yet there he had been the night before I left, lecturing me.
It really hadn’t seemed like him, but he hadn’t seemed like someone possessed by evil either. Could the changes have grown more severe over time? Or worse, could my departure have angered him so much that it accelerated the transformation?
Either way, this was my fault to begin with. If it hadn’t been for me, we would never have found that Lost Temple, and I had even allowed Rick to receive the blessing.
To be completely honest, I had felt a strong sense of envy towards him. I had given him my word that I would let him have it, but if I had known what kind of opportunity I was giving up, I never would have handed it over to him. But now that the blessing could very well have been a curse that would have turned me into the puppet of an evil entity, I felt relieved that I hadn’t received it.
But that also meant I bore some responsibility for the fact that someone with that kind of power was out there committing hideous acts.
"I believe this new power of his can also change other people. That would explain why the others are following him."
"Where are they?" I asked impulsively.
"The army’s latest investigation indicated that they passed through Greenville."
"That’s very close to here."
"Unfortunately, they didn’t have any composite sketches of them, so they passed through without any trouble. There’s a possibility they could come to Backwater—there’s a possibility they could come for you."
"Why would they come for me? I’m nothing special. It wouldn’t make sense for them to try to recruit me, nor would it make sense for them to kill me to eliminate a potential threat."
"That’s not true!"
Equidna closed the distance between us, took my hands in hers, and held them between us as she looked into my eyes.
"You truly are someone special, Leo. You’re a dedicated man with a pure heart. You’re better than many people in this world, so please don’t put yourself down like that."
"R-Right..." I replied, still stunned to hear her speak so highly of me.
"Leo, you should already know this, but you’re different from other humans. Your body emanates a much stronger divine aura than theirs. Rick may fear that you’ll grow stronger, or he may want to eliminate you because you’ll undoubtedly become a threat to him."
"If he’s nearby—I mean, if he’s in Backwater—Laios and the army would be able to defeat him, wouldn’t they?"
That was right. We had Laios, and he was very strong. Surely, he would be able to face Rick.
"Although I don’t like Laios, I can’t deny that he truly is a powerful fighter. Perhaps even one of the strongest people alive in Ashia."
"Then..."
"That won’t be enough," Equidna interrupted, dashing my hopes. "With each passing day, Rick and his allies grow stronger and stronger. At the rate they’re progressing, I don’t think Laios will be able to defeat him."
My eyes widened at her words. Words couldn’t describe my surprise. Despite his victory during our last mission together, Rick was nowhere near being a capable fighter.
I wouldn’t have expected him to defeat me in a fight, much less Laios.
For him to have become so powerful in such a short period of time—this new power he had obtained was truly terrifying.
Power like that couldn’t have been given to him for free. There was simply no way. Part of me wondered what price he was paying each day to become so powerful.
"Leo," Equidna said in a serious tone, "I’m not going to ask you to run away with me. Quite the opposite. I want to offer you an alternative."
"An alternative?"
"That’s right. Just like Rick, I was also blessed by a goddess."
"Is that true?"
A jolt of shock ran through me at that revelation. I knew she could see traces of divinity, but if she truly had a blessing, then she could—
"Yes, but unfortunately, I’m not powerful enough to face Rick. Not alone. The goddess who granted me her blessing also gave me the ability to bless other people—under certain circumstances."
Equidna took a deep breath, as though gathering the courage she needed to tell me the truth.
"Before anything else, please allow me to explain everything in detail. I need you to fully understand it before you accept. It isn’t something I can simply involve you in without you knowing its full implications."
"All right, Equidna. Go ahead."
"Promise me you’ll listen to what I have to say with an open mind," she said seriously.
"Why?"
"There would be no point in telling you this story if you refused to listen. You would reject every word I said, and then, even if you wanted the blessing for practical reasons, you wouldn’t be able to receive it."
It seemed I needed to listen to what Equidna had to tell me in good faith, or all of this would be for nothing.
"All right. No matter how absurd it may sound, I’ll listen and try to take you seriously."
"Thank you."
"Even so, I don’t think you’ll say anything that shocking—"
"The blessing I received came from Hel, the goddess of the dead."
Comments